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Implications of scaling relationships for relay ramps: Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, SE Utah
Pless, Claire
Pless, Claire
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2014
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2014
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Relay ramps are unbroken bedding surfaces that develop between the two overlapping tips of similarly dipping normal faults. Breached relay ramps form when the overlapping faults propagate and link, abandoning the relay ramp. The question of whether a scaling relationship exists between the parameters that define relay ramps and the possibility of those ramps being breached was studied in detail in Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. Extensive field mapping and measurement of each individual, measurable fault and its defining parameters in the Delicate Arch Relay Ramp area has been undertaken in Arches National Park. Measurements of the defining parameters for larger scale relay ramp geometries in the Grabens district of Canyonlands National Park have been measured using Global Mapper software. Once the defining parameters were measured, they were then combined, producing results showing that many of the parameter combinations calculated can be predictive of breaching in a relay ramp, which can be used to understand relay ramp geometry where minimal data are obtainable. Results also show that pre-existing structures, such as jointing, control the predictive nature of parameter combinations, potentially resulting in interpretation errors when these structures are unmapped in the sub-surface where jointing is more difficult to determine. In this study, certain expectations gained from previous research about what specific predictions can be made were tested. There was the expectation of the parameter combination overlap, measured between the overlapping fault tips, to width, measured between the two overlapping faults, showing an average 3:1 ratio for preferable relay ramp geometry, which was confirmed in this study. There was an expectation of breached relay ramps having greater ramp tilts than unbreached relay ramps, which was not seen in the field examples analyzed in this study. Supplementary files include four Microsoft Excel files. These files contain the original collected data, calculated data, and charts created from that calculated data that were used in this thesis.
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